There are many great reasons to make your own toothpaste. One is that commercial toothpaste brands often contain toxic ingredients that are harmful to your health. And let’s not forget that fluoride, the most common active ingredient in most toothpaste brands, can be poisonous in excess!
In this guide, I discuss the best ingredients to use when making your own toothpaste and ingredients that you should definitely avoid.
It’s funny how many people I see buying only organic, non-toxic sunscreen, and yet think nothing of using a blue, sparkly toothpaste daily.
But even if you plan on making a DIY toothpaste, it doesn’t mean you can’t do damage to your teeth. I’ve seen plenty of DIY toothpaste recipes sent to me by patients and readers that are harmful to enamel or even the microbiome.
Here’s everything you need to know about making your own DIY toothpaste, as well as how to choose ingredients that will provide the most benefits to your dental health.
IF YOU PURCHASE A PRODUCT USING A LINK BELOW, WE MAY RECEIVE A SMALL COMMISSION AT NO ADDITIONAL COST TO YOU. READ OUR AD POLICY HERE.
Why Make DIY Toothpaste?
Many mainstream brands of toothpaste contain harmful or even toxic ingredients, including:
- Triclosan. A pesticide and hormone disruptor.
- Sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). Causes canker sores for many people.
- Artificial colorings. Linked to ADHD and hyperactivity in children. Toothpaste does not need to be blue!
- Fluoride. Toxic if swallowed and doesn’t even work in toothpaste.
- Titanium dioxide. Added to make toothpaste white. Most of the data shows it’s safe and is not absorbed by the skin, but I have yet to find a study done to measure absorption by oral tissues. The EWG has a good list of safety concerns around titanium dioxide, but the take-home message is that it’s just there to make toothpaste white, not to improve your health. So why bother with it?
- Highly abrasive ingredients. Damage enamel, making teeth sensitive and more prone to gum recession and cavities. Toothpaste should only be a little bit abrasive—this graininess aids the brushing motion to remove the biofilm of the tooth.
Glycerin is an ingredient I’m asked about often. It isn’t toxic but ideally has no place in the mouth as it’s a soap that strips your body’s natural oral mucosa and leaves a film.
This film could coat the teeth, messing with the structure of the biofilm which could alter the microbiome in the mouth. Sadly, there are almost zero brands of toothpaste without glycerin—even my favorites!
Glycerin is much less concerning to me than the others on this list because its effect on remineralization is neutral or slightly negative. If you can avoid it with this DIY toothpaste, all the better!
Get Dr. B’s Dental Health Tips
Free weekly dental health advice in your inbox, plus 10 Insider Secrets to Dental Care as a free download when you sign up
The Best Ingredients to Use in DIY Toothpaste
- Coconut oil. Can help boost the microbiome in your gut (remember, the gut begins in the mouth!) and naturally prevent candida in the mouth. There is limited evidence that coconut oil might help reduce cavity-causing bacteria—either way, it can only help, so long as it’s not used as a replacement for flossing, brushing, and tongue scraping.
- Trace mineral drops. Beneficial especially if you drink reverse osmosis water, which removes bad stuff from the water but also removes the good stuff. I use Liqumins Trace Mineral Drops, which were recommended to me by integrative physician Elson Haas.
- Crushed cacao nibs. Believe it or not, the ideal DIY toothpaste would be chocolate toothpaste, since compounds in cacao beans promote remineralization better than fluoride (and of course, much more safely). Depending on the grain size of the cacao nibs, it could be a safe abrasive to break up the biofilm — just like ground walnut shells are used to polish jewelry!
- Bentonite clay. A natural polisher that is rich in minerals and not too abrasive. It’s also alkaline, so it helps reduce acidity in the mouth. Don’t be afraid of putting “dirt” in your mouth—we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that we need to sterilize our mouths with mouthwashes that remove “99% of germs,” but vibrant dental health is actually about achieving a balanced ecosystem of bacteria in your mouth, which protects us from illness and promotes tooth remineralization. Clay is actually used to clean and polish exotic cars without damaging the finish.
- Xylitol. For its ability to reduce cavity-causing bacteria in the mouth. Just don’t add too much since it’s a sweetener — too much can reprogram your taste buds to crave too much sweetness.
- Baking soda. For its alkalinity. Our teeth and mouths are constantly under attack by acids thanks to the foods we eat. Neutralizing these acids with vegetables and water is essential to maintaining proper pH in the mouth to encourage the right bacteria as well as protect the enamel from decay. Baking soda has a pH of 9 to 11 (alkaline), so it helps to neutralize acids while not being too abrasive to teeth.
Leave it Out: Ingredients to Avoid
- Anything acidic: I recommend grabbing pH strips from Amazon to test the acidity of any homemade toothpaste. Anything you make and use should ideally have a pH of 7 (neutral) or higher. Tooth enamel is built to resist acids, yes, but teeth are usually under constant acid attack–often in the form of constant snacking, the wrong foods, or even the right foods. Sipping on kombucha doesn’t give teeth a break from acid, preventing remineralization and making your teeth prone to decay.
- Hydrogen peroxide. Yes, this is the same ingredient used in whitening products and it does work — just not in the form of toothpaste. For hydrogen peroxide to whiten teeth, it needs to be held up against the tooth for an extended time–ideally with a custom-made tray, but also possible using whitening strips. You can’t just brush hydrogen peroxide on for a few minutes–it’s not long enough to have an effect. Hydrogen peroxide should be held up against only tooth enamel–ideally, it never comes into contact with gums, tongue, and soft tissues of the mouth, where it creates free radicals, which age us.
- Essential oils. This one may be a surprise! Since essential oils have antibacterial properties, many of them ideally should not be in the mouth. We want to nourish and feed the delicate balance of bacteria in our mouths, not kill it off! Doing so can set the stage for poor oral health, bad breath, and other imbalances. Bacteria are important. There are exceptions to this rule, such as anise essential oil.
FAQ
Can I just use baking soda?
Baking soda is completely safe to use as a DIY toothpaste. I like it because it’s non-toxic and increases alkalinity in the mouth by neutralizing acids, all while having a very low abrasion score.
Do I need to use toothpaste at all? How about using just water?
Using no toothpaste at all is perfectly fine. I dry brush without toothpaste all the time. The point of toothpaste is to add a little graininess to help the brushing motion of your toothbrush break up the biofilm. A polish, like toothpaste, helps you do this better than dry brushing, but if you’re traveling or away from the sink, don’t let a lack of toothpaste stop you from dry brushing!
Two DIY Toothpaste Recipes to Try Today
Now that you know which ingredients to include when making your own DIY toothpaste at home (and which ingredients to avoid), I want to leave you with two of my favorite recipes.
Don’t let toothpaste be an afterthought. The toothpaste you use can have a tremendous effect on not just your teeth, but your overall health as well.
Mark Burhenne DDS
DIY Charcoal Whitening Toothpaste